BEACHES BLOWN AWAY

Surge and winds from Sandy leave a lasting legacy as South Florida counties seek ways to recover.

Hurricane Sandy’s quick trip past South Florida cost the region huge swaths of beach, as wind and waves from the offshore storm gave coastlines their worst beating in years.

In hard-hit southern Deerfield Beach, sections of beach narrow to the width of a single lane on a road, with cliff-like escarpments marking where the ocean tore away the sand. In parts of northern Fort Lauderdale, the beach at high tide is simply gone, with the ocean making direct contact with seawalls. In Delray Beach, massive bars of wet sand that used to be on the beach have piled up offshore, forcing waves to break well out to sea.

“When I looked at the Fort Lauderdale beach, I cried,” said Teresa Ricci, a visitor from Canada. “We were just there in July and itwas so beautiful.”

Gov. Rick Scott has asked the federal government for a major disaster declaration for Brevard, Broward, Indian River, Martin, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and St. Lucie counties. “These counties are heavily dependent on beaches for tourism and derive much of their local sales tax base through tourism and other beach-related industries,” the governor wrote President Barack Obama.

Thestate is seeking $67.2 million to repair beaches, piers and other public property. Additional beach aid may come from the Army Corps of Engineers, which had previously sponsored restoration projects.

The damage varies from beach to beach, with those south of inlets taking theworst of it. Wide beaches remain in many places, such as the southern part of Fort Lauderdale’s central beach.

Beaches in Palm Beach County took their hardest hit in the north, which unlike the southern end is not protected by the Bahamas, said Dan Bates, the county’s deputy director of Environmental Resources Management. But he said, “therewas damage up and down the coastline” and estimated the total cost at $20 million.

The county expedited two already planned restoration projects, trucking in sand from a mine in St. Lucie County to shoreupbeaches on Singer Island and Coral Cove Park. Hardest hit in the south was Delray Beach, he said. That city, however, already had a $9.2 million restoration planned for February.

Paul Dorling, Delray Beach’s planning and zoning director, said the actual damage to the beach from the storm isn’t clear yet, since a lot of the sand remains just offshore and will likelywash back.

“We’re not sure how much will return,” he said. “Itwas pretty significant erosion.”

Among the hardest hit areas in Broward are southern Deerfield Beach, Hillsboro Beach, northern Fort Lauderdale, John U. Lloyd Beach State Park, the southern edge of Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, authorities said.

EricMyers, Broward County’s beach erosion administrator, described the damage as theworst sinceHurricaneWilma in 2005.

In Deerfield Beach, sunbathers made the best of the shrunken beach south of Hillsboro Boulevard, spreading blankets on a narrowstrip of dry sand.

“It’s still a beach,” said Katie Babee, 21, of LighthousePoint, her toes afewinches from the surf. “I’m enjoying the beach and the waves, so it doesn’t bother me too much.”

Damage was not limited to the beach. Repairs to fishing piers in Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach will cost an estimated $500,000, said Glenn Margoles, recovery/ mitigation coordinator for Broward County EmergencyManagement.

“It’s a pretty big impact for a storm 200 miles away,” he said.

Although Sandy’s core remained far offshore as it headed toward the northeastern United States, the stormcombined with seasonal high tides and a full moon to generate huge waves that hurled themselves at the beaches.

Authorities say much of the sand may return naturally. Several beach-widening projects were already in works, including one from northern Fort Lauderdale to southern Pompano Beach. And South Florida cities and counties are hoping for federal aid to spread sand in other eroded areas.

The impact on tourism isn’t yet clear. Nicki Grossman, president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, saidmost tourism at this time of year is driven by conventions, other group meetings and tourists from Canada, who come for sunshine and will make the best of it on the beach.

But the beach damage, combined with the storm’s devastation of the Northeast — South Florida’s richest source of tourists — could affect tourism in the next few months, she said. And she said this underlines the importance of moving forward quickly on beach renourishment projects.

“There’s serious erosion at the beaches, and it’s a mess,” she said. “Is it affecting tourism today? No. Will it down the road? Absolutely.”

MARK RANDALL/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Beachgoers look at erosion that went all the way under the Ocean’s Edge condominium on Singer Island.

AMY BETH BENNETT/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Sand dunes collapsed on Deerfield Beach, which officials say was among the hardest-hit.